Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s workplace is denying stories that metropolis funds had been used to help a program providing LGBTQ migrants as much as $500 in “wellness” perks, after a neighborhood advocacy group marketed the advantages and later scaled again its description amid backlash.
By means of its program “Belonging Issues,” the group had deliberate to offer yoga, arts and different leisure companies.
“No funds have been distributed or directed for these functions. This group acquired a $7,500 grant via a Metropolis program to help psychological well being companies. These funds weren’t designated for and will not be used for the voucher program referenced,” a spokesperson for town advised Fox Information Digital.
The dispute highlights conflicting claims about what the “Belonging Issues” program truly supplied and whether or not any city-backed funding was tied to these advantages, drawin
OUTnewcomers is listed as certainly one of 45 recipients of a bigger $200,000 push to help LGBTQ communities in Boston.
The $200,000 determine was authorized by Wu final yr as part of the Mayor’s Workplace of LGBTQ+ Development (MOLA).
In line with Boston officers, OUTnewcomers was awarded a $7,500 mini-grant allotted from the 2026 funds.
The town has not green-lighted grant funding or money help.
“These investments signify our continued dedication to uplifting LGBTQ+ Bostonians by placing sources instantly into the palms of trusted group organizations,” Wu stated in a press launch on the time.
The mayor’s workplace declined to reply questions on what the $7,500 fund had initially been authorized for.
The registration kind for Belonging Issues supplied candidates yoga, breathwork and meditation, gymnasium memberships, inventive arts, peer help, storytelling, nature-based wellness and hair styling.
If authorized, this system promised candidates $250 to $500 in “wellness allowances” evaluated on a case-by-case foundation.
However the group later described this system as providing vouchers of $50 or much less, making a discrepancy between how the initiative was initially offered and the way it was later characterised.
“Our Metropolis of Boston-funded program is modest and need-based. It offers small vouchers of $50 or much less to eligible LGBTQ+ migrants dwelling in Boston to entry restricted wellness help equivalent to haircuts, acupuncture, or therapeutic massage,” the group stated in a press launch.
This system drew scrutiny on-line, with critics calling it a waste of taxpayer {dollars}.
“Handing out perks & advantages like this all of the whereas telling the tax payers of Boston that you must pay extra as a result of we have now an enormous shortfall in our funds,” one observer wrote in a put up to X, alluding to property tax hikes authorized by the Boston Metropolis Council in 2025.
OUTnewcomers didn’t reply to requests for remark from Fox Information Digital on what number of registrants are anticipated to affix or what number of have enrolled to date.
The group introduced on Thursday that it had quickly suspended this system on account of “safety threats.”
Based by Sal Khan, a queer journalist initially from Pakistan, OUTnewcomers describes itself as a “grassroots and volunteer-run group based mostly within the Better Boston Space” centered on “community-led advocacy, useful resource navigation and collective care.”
OUTnewcomers solely just lately launched its web site in April, in accordance to a put up to X put up by the group.
Their web site doesn’t listing a 990 kind, the required disclosure for nonprofits that usually lays out a corporation’s construction, management and income.
